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    Moonbeeps: Fireflies

    Moonbeeps: Fireflies

    Games and Entertainment

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    Discover luminous fireflies buzzing about the forest. Collect them with a tap of your finger and...

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Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated Something Wicked This Way Comes in Books

Jan 4, 2021  
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Linda Gaine | 2020 | Horror
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The book has a beautiful setting. (0 more)
Fails to live up to its promise of being a horror story (0 more)
Meh book
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Linda Gaine is a mildly creepy story perfect for a fall night. It gave me that uncomfortable feeling that is not quite fear from time to time making me want to insure that doors were locked and the lights were on.

 Nothing interesting ever happens in small towns. Especially in those so small that most of the residents know each other. In a town that small the murder of a young woman is big news. When this single murder turns into a string of murders that appear to be the work of a serial killer the entire town is put on edge. Everyone, specifically women are encouraged to travel with others and avoid being out at night. Unfortunately not everyone listens.

 Amanda is a young woman who has grown up in this small town. She meets her husband at a local bar and they buy a large house in the mountains on the outskirts of town. Too bad a house in the mountains is not an ideal place for a young woman and her child to be living alone. Yet that is exactly what would have happened when Amanda’s husband ends up in the hospital if it wasn’t for Amanda’s best friend. The house my be isolated but that is little comfort to Amanda when the serial killer seams to be showing a special interest in her.

 I enjoyed the setting of the book. From the quiet town to the large house up on the mountain. Everything is just so peaceful and lovingly thought out in the town. I was actually able to feel just how unsettling the house on the mountain was for everyone as well. It would have been nice to see dinkus (the there asterisks used to divide chapters into sections) being used. The main negative thing I noticed about this book was it jumping form one person to another without warning. The story became very confusing because of the lack of breaks. Large time jumps also became an issue.

 I would not recommend this book for those hoping for horror. Instead this book is better suited for those who enjoy murder mysteries and dramas. Young adults and adults alike should enjoy this book although both should be aware of extremely mild adult content. I rate this book 2 out of 4. Sadly this book did not live up to the promise it seemed to give out. While the book started out moderately creepy it was not able to maintain that feeling. Other than that the book itself was good and had an interesting plot line. The book seems to play more on the human fear of being alone and of close personal tragedies more than anything else.
  
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Kaz (232 KP) rated The Finisher (Vega Jane #1) in Books

Nov 5, 2019  
The Finisher (Vega Jane #1)
The Finisher (Vega Jane #1)
David Baldacci | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Interesting idea and characters (0 more)
Confusing use of vocabulary, poor ending (0 more)
I'm a fan of Fantasy and Sci-fi and, in a recent conversation with a friend on the subject of reading, they recommended and lent me, the 'Vega Jane' Series.

Book one started with great promise. Vega Jane and the rest of the characters were very well formed and I liked the initial underlining feminist message, running throughout the story.

However, I found many problems with this novel. Firstly, the writing was a major problem for me, particularly the vocabulary that was used by the characters.

Wormwood is supposedly a fictional place, on an unknown planet. So it didn't come to surprise, that the characters used a fictional language.

The problem with that was, when a character used a fictional word, as a reader, you had to hazard a guess at to what the characters were talking about. Also, made up words were used, where they weren't particularly necessary. For example, ''Lights' were 'days' and 'slivers' were 'time'. For me, it wasn't entirely necessary to use alternative words for these things and this vocabulary was being thrown in, to try and make the setting of the story, more interesting. I would have preferred the use of fictitious words for some of the more exotic things, found in the environment of Wormwood.

Also to confuse things even further, more modern words like 'bloke' were used, which gave this weird mish mash, between the modern and the fantasy world, the book took place in. I think what David Baldacci was trying to do, was to make the situation and characters more relatable to its predominately teenage audience. What this combination of language actually did, was to cause me to step out of the world that was being created, rather than being drawn into it.

The plot was generally good. Although, as Vega was learning more about her powers, there were no real explanations as to why she had them. I know this is a series and I suppose that during the course of the novels, there will be more explanation, but I felt like something should have been explained.

Also, Vega inexplicably finds weapons at the exact times she needs them, without any explanation about where they came from. It was as if David Baldacci found Vega in a tight spot, so he decided to drop weapons from the sky. For me, that wasn't logical and was a bit lazy on the writer's part.

I did enjoy the tension which ran through the book and that kept me reading until the very end. I was fully prepared, as I neared the end of book one, to continue reading the rest of the series. However, the last three chapters totally put me off reading the rest of the books, for several reasons.

Firstly, Vega Jane was a strong female character, who had guts and fought to survive. So it was totally out of character, at the end, for her to start worrying about what she looked like and what boys thought of her. To me, that totally contradicted the message that the rest of the book was trying to send.

Also the resolution to the novel, like some of the other elements in this book, seemed to come from no where. I felt totally disappointed at the weak ending.

This novel had interesting promise and a great female protagonist, but it missed the mark entirely for me.

If you like reading fantasy novels, with strong female characters, I wouldn't suggest reading this. Read the 'Hunger Games' Trilogy instead.